[Coco] FPGA VS Software Emulators

[Steve Strowbridge]

This has been an interesting thread to follow, I find the topic
fascinating, and I'd love to possibly have it as the topic of discussion
for this weekend's CoCoTALK.
Who would like to be on the call to talk about it, both from the novice and
expert end of the spectrum?
Who has one they can show off in some fashion, possibly like pointing your
web cam at the system and showing what it looks like, showing what one of
the new FPGA style CoCo's look like running, etc.

If this is of interest, I need to lock down a few of you to commit to this
call, which would be this Saturday @ 2:00 PM EDT, if one or more of you
have a schedule conflict, let me know and I can arrange a different time,
if needed.

Need to know soon, who'd like to speak on this topic, it would be via Skype
on the live call, so at minimum a headset microphone and decent internet
connection would be required, and if you wanted to show and tell, a web cam
is also needed

Please email me at ogStevieStrow at gmail.com directly if you need to discuss
further, I'll also need all respective parties to add me as a Skype contact
as "ogStevieStrow" and I'd even like to do a test call with you in advance,
just to work out the audio/video logistics, sound quality, background
noise, etc.

I know it's short notice, so if I can't get a few of you to commit by this
Saturday,, I'd still like this to be a primary CoCo TALK topic in the near
future.

Looking forward to hopefully a few of you booking with me :)

CoCo Forever!



Steve Strowbridge, aka
The Original Gamer Stevie Strow
Website/Merchandise/CoCo links page:
http://ogsteviestrow.com
Email:  ogsteviestrow at gmail.com
Get your "Game Play Goodnes" fix of CoCo and retro videos at:
http://youtube.com/ogsteviestrow


On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 4:27 PM, James Ross <jrosslist at outlook.com> wrote:

> outlook.live.com sent a draft of my message, instead of my final edited
> message ... here it is again.
>
> I share your desire to learn FPGA programming, Zambotti!!
>
> I've read just enough articles and blogs that I think I have a good grasp
> of the top level "understanding" of FPGA's.  But that is all it is. Just a
> top-level overview.
>
> I was introduced to the concept back in 1998 when I worked w/ a hardware
> engineer on a project that I was working on the software for and he used
> GALS and/or PALS - the programmable logic chips of the day.  Which I think
> today have been mainly replaced w/ CPLDs.  But I didn't really understand
> what was really going on, I just read the I/O that was given to me, in the
> software.
>
> Now I want to learn and understand the low-level stuff and how it all
> works at the logic signal / clock / gate level.  Sort of like learning to
> program in BASIC first and then picking up Assembly / Machine Language
> later.
>
> I want to learn the underlying digital theory and building blocks of what
> makes up complex digital circuits.  I'd like to understand the schematics
> and operation starting at the level of the 74xx series and the common block
> operations that can be built from them.
>
> I would like to build some simple circuits w/ real physical chips and
> understand the logic of what is going on. How to read the schematics of the
> circuits and then implement the same simple circuits in FPGA code (both
> Verilog and VHDL).  With enough of these experiments, I could start to
> understand how to piece more complex circuits together (like the CPU / RAM
> / GIME / peripheral input output devices / etc) and how you connect these
> separate blocks together inside the FPGA, just as if they were physical
> chips.
>
> Start w/ the very basics and progress up to the complexity of emulating
> the CoCo.
>
> If I ever find the time ...
>
> James
>
> ________________________________________
> From: James Ross <jrosslist at outlook.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 8:22 PM
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [Coco] FPGA VS Software Emulators
>
> I share your desire to learn FPGA programming, Zambotti!!
>
> I've read enough articles and blogs that I think I have a good grasp of
> the top level "understanding" of FPGA's.  But now I want to learn and
> understand the low-level stuff and how it all works at the logic signal /
> clock / gate level.  Sort of like learning to program in BASIC first and
> then picking up assembly language later.
>
> I was introduced to the concept back in 1998 when I worked w/ a hardware
> engineer on a project that I was doing the software for and he used GALS
> and/or PALS - the programmable logic chips of the day.  Which I think today
> have been mainly replaced w/ CPLDs.
>
> Now I want to learn the underlying digital theory and building blocks of
> what makes up complex digital circuits.  I'd like to understand the
> schematics and operation starting at the level of 74xx series and common
> block operations that can be built from them.
>
> I would like to actually build the simple circuits w/ real physical chips
> / understand the logic of what is going on, how to read the schematics of
> the circuits and then implement the same simple circuits in FPGA code (both
> Verilog and VHDL).  Then which enough of these,
>
> If I ever find the time -- I would like to create a series of blogs /
> lessons that start w/ the very basics and progresses up to the complexity
> of emulating the CoCo.
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Coco <coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com> on behalf of Walter Zambotti <
> zambotti at iinet.net.au>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 6:54 AM
> To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
> Subject: Re: [Coco] FPGA VS Software Emulators
>
> Where did all of you learn your FPGA programming skills?
>
> You have really sparked my interest!
>
> I've been coding and developing for nearly forty years and I'm wondering
> if this is something I could pick up .
>
> Would the code (do you call it so?) for the FPGA projects be
> understandable to a regular coder like myself?
>
> Or would I need to start on something much simpler and work up to
> something like these CoCo FPGA projects.
>
> Walter
>
>
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